


like bottles holding prayers

by Iki_teru



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Gen, friendship fic, minor spoilers for dream drop distance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-23
Updated: 2016-11-23
Packaged: 2018-09-01 17:22:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8632090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iki_teru/pseuds/Iki_teru
Summary: set pre/during Dream Drop Distance.  Kairi starts training months before the boys leave for their Mark of Mastery exam -and no she's not bitter about that at all, that this is another chasm growing between them. Something else for her to be excluded from, something else for her to watch from the sidelines and pretend that she's okay with as they leave her behind again. Sometimes, when you feel completely alone you need to be reminded that it's okay to depend on your friends for help.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Entirely self edited. Con crit is, as always, welcome and appreciated. Many apologies for my blatant abuse of the English language, I did try to edit it but after a while one reaches a certain "fuck it, have all the commas" point and it turns out that's kind of 4 am after staring at this thing for two months. Title shamelessly stolen from the song "Watermark" by Sleeping At Last.

_such inheritance was formed within the sand_

_like the shells you gather in the safety of your hands_

_dive in with your eyes closed_

_for the life you were born to claim_

_and the water will be paralyzed_

_by the courage you contain_

_-_ Sleeping at Last "Watermark"

 

 

 

 

She starts training months before the boys leave for their Mark of Mastery exam -and no she's not bitter about that at all, that this is another chasm growing between them. Something else for her to be excluded from, something else for her to watch from the sidelines and pretend that she's okay with as they leave her behind _again_. It starts easy: waking up an hour early, jogging along the beach, home before the sun is finished rising. Her parents don't even know she's doing it, and for some reason Kairi is hesitant to tell them about her early morning jaunts (the boys never ask, because of course they don't.) It goes from jogging to sprints to flat out running to adding distance to her morning trips: a mile, two miles, three miles and she only collapses once, skins her knee and makes up a story about tripping over the living room rug when Selphie asks about it at school that day. (If Selphie looks at her a little askance that day, then Kairi makes a point of not noticing.)

She borrows scrap lumber from the wood shop. The teacher never even questions why someone who's not even in his class would want it and she cobbles together a vague simile for _Destiny's Embrace_. It takes a bit of crafting on her part- a lot of twine and string to hold the pieces together, some whittling to get the weight almost right. The wooden version is too heavy, always too heavy but she's scared of cutting it down too much and making it useless for practice. She can't get the teeth quite right, gives up on trying to get the shape of the flowers and leaves it at a suggestion instead, makes sure she gets something like a keychain attached to the end, it flicks her in the face the first couple of times she swings the blade up and busts her lip. More excuses, more lies that nobody examines too closely.

She practices with her fake keyblade alone in her room until she knocks over a lamp. Then it's waking up two hours early; one for running, one for fighting invisible enemies up and down the shoreline. There are blisters kissing the pads of her fingers, edging the top of her palms. It makes school work excruciating, trying not to wince when they pop and seep and bleed and nobody ever warned Kairi about this, about the pain that comes with learning.

Nobody ever thought she would need to learn.

She wonders, again and again as she applies creams and ointments and wraps her hands before bed, if magic is very difficult to learn, if it is is something one can teach themselves. She spends long hours mumbling _heal_ to her poor broken hands, trying to force the familiar mint green light and warmth to blossom and fix her pains. _Heal._ The same word over and over until it loses meaning, until she falls asleep, exhaling _heal_ hopelessly to the moon.

Kairi knows she could ask Sora or Riku for help, she _does_ . But every time the conversation even leans towards their extracurricular activities they both get this _look_ on their faces and go white knuckled and far away and she's afraid. She's afraid to ask them, that they'll say no, no she shouldn't. No it was a mistake, no the blade isn't hers.

She knows, deep down, that this is foolish, that they would never, and yet...

So she keeps at it in secret until the letter from King Mickey arrives, announcing the exam, until they board the gummi ship and Sora holds her so tight her sides ache afterwards and he doesn't quite beg her to be safe until they get back.

Then she's sliding a letter into Selphie's locker _meet me at the island where we used to play, bring your jump rope_ and for the first time she's practicing under the heat of the sun.

Selphie arrives, wary and confused and out of her school uniform and Kairi is hit with a pang of regret. It's so rare that she gets to see her friend anymore, she almost doesn’t recognize Selphie out of the school uniform. Once upon a time they had been almost sisters. _Girls gotta stick together,_ whispered between laced fingers as they tripped along the beach. Once upon a time they used to go shopping almost exclusively together, long afternoons spent under unflattering lighting and bolstering each other's confidence in this dress or those shorts. It feels a little like using her now, for her own purpose and not a favor from a friend. "Kairi?" Selphie eyes the cobbled together keyblade, brows knitted in confusion.

"I need your help, you remember how everyone used to play fight?"  Kairi says all at once, before the fear seizes her up again and she turns and runs and gives in that _this is probably a terrible idea_.

Selphie is nodding, twisting the ends of her jump rope. She's nervous and Kairi can't blame her. "You never wanted to, you always hunted for shells or had stories to tell in the shade for whoever wasn't fighting."

"I know," Kairi bites her lip, debating how much to tell, how much could she tell without breaking promises and treaties and pacts that didn’t belong to her. "I can't explain it, but I need to learn to fight now."

"Are you in trouble?"

"No, not yet at least."

Selphie looks at her and Kairi wonders where the years have gone, what happened to her friend who would smile at nothing in the distance, lost in her own head. The Selphie that stands in front of her now is sharp eyed and square shouldered. "This has something to do with where Riku and Sora have gone, doesn't it? And where you went last time, when you disappeared."

She doesn't know what to say, settles for a nod.

"You can't tell me about it, can you?"

Kairi laughs shakily. "I wouldn't even know how to start, Selph."

Selphie sighs, rolling her shoulders. "Alright, but it's been a while so I'm not sure how much help I'll actually be."

Twenty minutes later and Kairi thinks Selphie was being humble. Her knuckles are cracked and bleeding, she has yet to even get in and disarm the other girl. Every time she thinks she's close Selphie swings the jump rope and leaps nimbly backwards, out of range again. Kairi's shoulders are shaking and her wrists have gone numb but she manages a weak smile.

"You're holding your...sword too tightly." Selphie says, passing down a bottle of water to where Kairi has collapsed on the beach. "You need a firm grip but not so tense. I bet your arms are killing you right now." She takes a seat beside Kairi, knees drawn to her chest as she regards her friend, fiddling the handles of her jump rope in a nervous tic.

"Right." Kairi is not panting, she's just a little winded. "Thank you, for the advice and the...practice." She lets Selphie help her back to her feet, heedless of the sand sticking to her everywhere and dredges up a grin with a little more heart behind it. "Same time tomorrow?"

She goes home that night, ices her wrists and applies a balm to her knuckles before wrapping them and all but passes out in bed.

It's a week of waking up early to do her solo practices before the sun can call her out on her secrets and training against Selphie in the afternoons with only the ocean for a witness. A week of extracting promises from Selphie not to tell. "Not anybody?" And Selphie's brow knits at this and she looks distinctly unhappy and another pang of guilt shoots through Kairi's stomach.

"Nobody can know."

"What do your parents think you're doing?"

The guilt doubles because Kairi can see the faces her parents would make if they found out, the crumpled horror and disappointment, the fear shining in their eyes. They would worry and fret and if they asked her not to do it she wasn't sure she would be strong enough to tell them no. "Homework," Kairi mutters to the sand. "They won't understand. Please Selphie, I need to do this."

Selphie sighs and looks a little annoyed at the whole situation and Kairi swallows the bite of guilt bubbling inside her. "I know, you have your mysteries. Fine, I said I won't tell anyone and I mean it, I promise."

On the sixth day of practice Selphie is forced to break her promise.

Kairi had known something was not quite right for a couple of days now. She was moving slower, having problems focusing and there was a dull thunder rolling through her skull, a constant companion to her day. Fatigue, she thinks. Thinks maybe she just needs to push a little harder, get over this stumbling block and then everything will be easier.

On the sixth afternoon she manages to do worse against Selphie than she did on their very first day of practice. Her keyblade made of wood and reality weighing heavy, like lead in her arms. Her feet unsteady beneath her as she pitches about the beach.

She sees Selphie's brows come together in that increasingly familiar furrow, hears the other girl begin to ask a question _Are you_ and then the world tilts sideways and blackness descends and Kairi thinks of another time she passed out, passed through something and met a boy named Roxas. But there are no familiar strangers in her dreams, she has no dreams.

She comes to once in the little dinghy as Selphie rows them back to shore, hears the startled gasp before Kairi manages to pull herself upright, heaving overboard and flopping back to the bottom of their little boat to sink into darkness again.

 

She wakes again in a half familiar bedroom, the setting sun painting long streaks of orange through the window. Wakka leans over her, face grim as he changes out a cool rag on her head. "Oh, you finally decided to join us?" He tries for a smile but everything in his face is a little too tense, too tight. There's scruffle on his cheek that rasps against his palm as he rubs his face, tiredness slipping over his mask.

How long has it been since she's really been around Wakka? Sure, they pass each other with acknowledgement in the halls at school but how long since she said actual _words_ to him?

Once upon a time they had _all_ been practically inseparable, a jumble of shrieking limbs, the six of them had done everything together. Wakka's house had been a beloved hang out, his mother always staying well stocked on everyone's favorite snacks. Now... now a near man who only passingly resembles the boy Kairi had grown up sat next to her, looking as lost as she felt about what to do now.

"Selphie's on the phone with your folk," Wakka says. He's regarding Kairi out the corner of his eye, like you'd do with a snake. She was something potentially dangerous now, an unknown entity. Would she turn out to be venomous, or just harmless creature, that's what his eyes asked. "She's telling 'em you're helping her study for a science test and staying the night." He shifts in his seat, scratching at the back of his neck, looking away. Deciding she's not a danger after all. "I won't tell 'em different, on one condition."

Kairi bites her lip and says nothing, bracing herself for the inevitable. He's going to tell her to stop, of course he is, it's what she's been afraid of this entire time. She squares her shoulders, anticipating.

"Let me help you."

Everything seems to have gone sideways and the shock of his words leaves her feeling numb and wrong footed. "What?" she breathes.

"I don't know the specifics, Selphie tried to beat me black an' blue when I tried to get her to tell me, something about a promise to you. But I've seen this before, or something similar enough. Kids that want on the track team or soccer, too scared to tell anyone 'case they try to talk em out of it, so they train in secret. 'Cept you're making the same mistakes a lot of them make, expending all this extra energy but you're not adjusting your diet at all. Not enough calories and your body shuts down, like it did earlier today.

"I'm your friend, Kairi. I don't know what you're doing but I know it's important to you. Let me help you." He regards at her openly, words spoken in such earnest that Kairi feels something tighten in her chest.

"Okay." The word slips out so quietly she's not entirely sure she's said it out loud. But Wakka relaxes in his chair with a chuckle and she realizes she had been wrong, he wasn't afraid _of_ her, he had been afraid _for_ her.

He gets her talking about her routine in broad strokes, scribbling notes down on a pad of paper. Kairi isn't surprised when he starts talking dietary needs, asking her about favorite foods and least favorites and working out a complex meal schedule for her without being asked. It's something Wakka's good at, taking care of people in this way. It feels strange, letting people in on this tiny corner of her secret, the rest of which she couldn't begin to unearth to them if she wanted to.

Selphie comes through the door, silent and somber and so very unlike her that it takes everything Kairi has not to jump up from the bed and wrap her friend in a tight embrace. Selphie won't look her in the eye, looks on the edge of crying, looks like she's been doing nothing but crying since Kairi had keeled over.

"I'm sorry," Selphie manages to sob out. "I didn't know what to do, I didn't want to break my promise to you but you wouldn't wake up and Wakka was right there and I thought... I thought this would be better, than having to take you to your parents or the hospital or something and I-"

Kairi doesn't let her finish, she pulls herself from the bed and trips her way over to Selphie on unsteady feet and more collapses against her then embraces her. "I'm sorry," she says. Which only makes Selphie blink in confusion. "I never should have asked you to stay quiet about this, That wasn't fair to you, and you absolutely did the right thing. Thank you Selphie. If you weren't with me I don't know what would have happened."

Selphie gives a watery laugh and returns the embrace and if she's still crying a little on Kairi's shoulder then neither party cares to mention it.

Kairi asks if she can actually spend the night at Selphie’s. They really do have a science test tomorrow and academia has been the farthest thing from Kairi’s mind lately. A little return to normalcy might not be the worst thing ever, besides she has to keep her grades up so when the boys eventually return she can tutor them so nobody falls behind.

Not much gets accomplished in the way of studying, this really comes as no surprise. It’s strangely easy to slip into old habits, curled up on pillows on Selphie’s bedroom floor, laughing at nothing without knowing why. They do that for too many hours, until Selphie’s mom come to the door to shush them and demand they go to sleep.

Selphie’s bed is too narrow for both of them to fit, and isn’t it weird that this is the weirdest thing to be going on? Kairi remembers huddling in that thin bed with her friend, whispering and giggling quietly to each other until the sun broke over the horizon.

They make pallets on the floor, side by side at Selphie’s insistence “so we’ll be on equal ground” and that seems to be the most important thing to her. They scoot closer once they’re settled in, moving until they’re lying under the same blanket, until Kairi doesn’t even have to reach out to find Selphie’s hand.

There’s no senseless giggling tonight. Their breathing sounds loud in the silence of the midnight hour. Kairi can feel something in the air thickening, the quiet shifting from comfortable to oppressive.

“Hey,” Selphie breathes. Kairi doesn’t respond, too afraid to break whatever magic is happening, settles for squeezing Selphie’s fingers so the other girl will know she’s listening. “I won’t ask you to tell me things you can’t,” says Selphie. “I know about… About secrets. About things that you can’t quite explain. This is going to sound silly, but when I sleep I dream I’m somewhere else. I’m still _me_ , mostly, but there’s this school that flies and this train and memories that go missing and it’s a dream but it’s _more_ than that, I wake up some mornings and I swear I’ve still got a feather in my hand…

“and I know it’s not the same, I know whatever you’re going through is different but I just wanted to let you know, I get it. I can kind of relate to living a double life and not having anyone to talk to. I’ll listen, if you ever need someone to talk to.” Selphie got quieter by the end, if that was even possible.

That tightness from earlier came back, squeezing Kairi’s heart and leaving her feeling warm and exposed. She lifts their joined hands to her mouth, she can smell Selphie’s body wash- lemon peel and coconut and a strange something that Kairi could only call _bright_ \- and to the darkness and the joined point of contact with her dear friend, she tells a story.

“Long ago, people lived in peace, bathed in the warmth of light…”

It isn't quite her story, it was the very edge of where her heart began and all her pain lay, but it’s what she could share for now. The old words came, quick and easy like she’d been telling the story for years. When she finishes Selphie does not ask any questions, does not point out how little that had to do with anything stretching between them, just squeezes Kairi’s hand reassuringly and leans forward until their foreheads rest against each other.

They fall asleep like that, curled towards each other and holding on to the strange not secrets they had shared.

  
  


Wakka follows them to the island the next afternoon and where Wakka goes Tidus is sure to follow. Like a shadow or a puppy or something, depending on how annoying he's being - like a _child_ right now, Kairi thinks unkindly because while Wakka is being helpful and giving advice and making her go through warm up exercises and teaching her the importance of dodging, which absolutely sucks on a sandy beach and she's more than a little worried about the arcs of sand she kicks up and how it gets _everywhere_ and there's no way this much grit can be safe to have in your eyes- Tidus is just being loud and critical in an unhelpful way and three days of this he finally picks up her handmade keyblade, pulls a face and says "what the hell is this anyway?"

Nobody says anything for a long moment. Wakka and Selphie have always been tactful and respected that whatever was going on was something strange and a little foreign and unexplainable. Tidus gives the wooden keyblade a practice swing, frown deepening. "What could you even do with this thing?"

She should let it go. She probably would let it go if a corked bottle hadn't come floating through the surf just this morning on her way to school. Selphie scooping the bottle up with amusement lighting her face until she pulled the letter free and the color had drained and she adopted the increasingly familiar stiffness she takes on whenever it's something about Kairi's _other_ activity.

The letter is from King Mickey, giving her an update on the Mark of Mastery exam. It's brief and scrawled quickly and it takes a moment to decipher completely and still she can't quite absorb everything it says except there's been some sort of complication and it's going to take a little longer than they anticipated, don't worry the boys are fine they'll be home soon promise, just not as soon and it doesn't actually tell her _anything_ and she's gone all day quietly simmering.

So when Tidus handles her keyblade _without asking_ and has that look on his face Kairi finds herself standing up, dusting the sand from her hands. "You really want to find out?" She holds her hand out.

Tidus smiles, all teeth and sharp edges and fetches his stupid staff from who knows where, like he's been waiting for this moment as much as she has. They come together in a clash of wood and Kairi realizes she needed this; that she's been itching for something like a real fight.

She has memories, the ones that are not quite hers- from when she was sleeping in Sora's heart- of being in close quarters with an opponent, of their hot breath on the face and the shiver of muscles in the arms. She's been wanting for this all morning, needing an outlet for her feelings, for this constant nagging _left behind-ness_ that she seems to be occupying no matter what.

Fighting Tidus isn't like fighting with Selphie. There's no hesitance in his motions and he's quick; in her space and swinging his pole down, hard, across her knuckles. He knows right where to hit and every jab hurts but Kairi keeps at it. She's not as fast as him, not yet; but she grits her teeth, ducks under one of his two handed swings and barrels into his chest, knocking him back so she can swing her keyblade twisted out of reality and wood and splinters into his side.

He laughs, which only serves to make her blood hotter and he's back on the offensive, holding the staff in the middle so he can smack her with either end, catching her on the back of the hand grasping tightly at the hilt of her keyblade. Kairi is dully aware of Selphie screaming something from down the beach, is aware of the spray of the ocean lapping at her ankles. She tries to press forward, slips in the surf and only manages to catch herself from tumbling over. Tidus comes in with an underhanded swing, jarring the keyblade out of her weakened grasp and before she can lunge for it it's gone, sucked out to sea by the traitorous waves.

"Guess that's that," Tidus says, resting his staff over his shoulders.

It's not, it can't be, She's worked too hard for this to be the end and before Kairi is fully aware of herself she's screaming, bellowing, a sound deep from her gut that later will leave her throat raw and sore and her hand fists over nothing until a spray of light creates a _something_ and _Destiny's Embrace_ \- the real, actual, impossibility is in her hand. It feels like a feather after the clunky mess she's been toting around and she swings it down in a white rage, Tidus only barely bringing his staff up to meet her in time with a cry of surprise.

It feels better like this, like _Destiny's Embrace_ is an extension of her and it pulses with power in time with her heartbeat and she swings it faster than she could ever swing her wooden simile and she can't even see Tidus anymore; is lost in the words of King Mickey's letter, lost to the feeling of staying behind once again and how it's been almost a _year_ since Sora and Riku took down Xemnas (without her _without her_ always, always without her) and how they still hadn't given her a chance, hadn't thought her worth the time (that's not true, a small part argues but that part is drowned out by the adrenaline and the rage and the worried calls of her remaining friends on the beach that she cannot quite hear.) And something not quite ugly but very angry and very _full_ bubbles up and burns her throat and her veins and she barely has the foresight to swing the keyblade up and away as light coalesces at the tip before exploding outwards, the blowback knocking Tidus clear off his feet.

There's the scent of flowers in the air, flowers she hadn't smelled since she was a small child on another world and Kairi is suddenly drained and exhausted, dropping to her knees and lets go of her keyblade, lets it fizzle and return to its resting place inside her heart.

Silence descends on the beach save for the soft _shush_ of the ocean. This was the first concrete piece of _otherness_ Kairi had shown. They would leave her now, and she wouldn't blame them. She was too strange to be among her friends here on the island, not strong enough to go with her friends to travel the stars.

Tidus laughs. It's a loud bray and a little shaky at the edges but his smile is genuine and he looks at her with nothing but awe in his eyes as he says, "that was fucking _awesome._ "

 

Another week passes.

Kairi can fight all three of them now, winning more times than not. Some days she lets them gather before hand while she stretches so they can try to work out some strategy to take her down. Today they're trying for a three pronged attack, Tidus coming at her from behind with Wakka off some distance to her right with a basket of rubber balls to chunk her way and Selphie straight ahead. She doesn't even give it a moment's thought- dodges out of Tidus' running attack and rolls towards Selphie, catches the jump rope around her keyblade and giving an apologetic smile as she _tugs,_ ripping it out of the other girl's grasp. Kairi darts in to give Selphie a quick double tap on either shoulder, effectively outing her from the round.

She swings around, jump rope still tangled around the flowers blooming from _Destiny's Embrace_ and catches Tidus in the side of the head with the handle. "No fair using someone else's weapon!" he cries, clutching his temple. Wakka sends a ball careening straight for Kairi and she knocks it aside, right into Tidus' stomach.

"Sorry," she calls, leaping over a low flying ball. "I can't hear you over how much I'm kicking your ass!"

Tidus grumbles and gets back to his feet and they run at each other head on, smiling all the while. Kairi ducks low, scraping the jump rope off the keyblade and tangling it in Tidus' legs. She disarms him and gives a cursory bop to the top of his head. "Out," she sings sweetly, tossing his staff to the side. It's too long and awkward and besides, she likes handling _Embrace_ with two hands for this next part.

Wakka tries a series of fast shots but he can only throw so quickly. Kairi dodges the first one, sends the second one right back at him and swoops around the third one to catch him on the chin with the hilt of her keyblade. "Out." She's not quite panting, feels more elated than anything at how _good_ she's gotten at this.

He holds his hands up in surrender.

Later, after a well deserved break, Wakka asks, "Did you want to try practicing that magic thing again?"

"Mm, no. I don't really know what it is or how I did it and I'd rather not risk accidentally blowing everyone up until I get to talk to a magic handler."

They head home, there is still school to worry about in the morning.

Selphie and Kairi had shared a boat. Kairi had been doing a lot in the past couple of weeks to try and mend her fraying friendships. It felt nice to be close to people again, to _these_ people again. They may no longer be the children they were; carefree and innocent and wasting long days doing nothing, but she had found new depths in them, new moments to treasure.

"I'm glad we can help you," Selphie said. Her voice  is quiet and she isn’t quite looking at Kairi, "I was so worried, when the three of you started pulling away all those years ago. Then Sora and Riku disappeared, then _you_ disappeared and I didn't think we would ever see any of you again."

The raft, the secret plans, if things had gone differently they might not have come back (the boys, lost in the Realm of Darkness, pulled home by her heart and her letter and her love, so many times she could have lost them forever.) Kairi has spent so long feeling left out that she realizes she's not the only one who's been suffering. She swallows the heavy knot of guilt. "We wanted to explore," she says. "But we would have come back, Destiny Islands is our home, we'll always come back."

"I know." Selphie smiles but it doesn't reach her eyes. "But that doesn't make the waiting and wondering any easier to bare."

They say goodbye at the dock and Kairi hugs her friend for longer than she has in a long while. "I'll see you tomorrow, we'll walk to school together, promise."

 

It's Kairi's turn to break a promise. Riku is tapping at her bedroom window before the sun has even risen. "We need to go," he whispers, urging her to get dressed quickly. "Master Yen Sid wants to see you."

She's not surprised by this, not really, not as much as Riku seems to be if the way he keeps trying to size her up out the corner of his eye is anything to go by. She dresses in a hurry, grabbing the first clean things she comes across, trusting Riku to be respectful enough to turn away and not really caring if he doesn't. Kairi is almost out the window when she thinks about people left behind and the tang of worry that colors everything. "Hang on," she says, crawling back into her bedroom to scribble a hasty note to her parents. "and there's one more thing I need to do."

Selphie is just waking up when Kairi comes barging into her room. "I have to go," she says to her sleepy friend. "But I wanted to say goodbye this time, and let you know I'll be back, we'll all be back, it may be a while but nothing can keep me from the islands." Kairi hugs Selphie close, presses all her thanks and affection into the embrace.

"Wait," Selphie grabs at the back of Kairi's dress. "You said I've been a big help, remember? Please, let me come." _Don’t leave me behind too_.

Kairi thinks her heart might burst from love. She hates doing this to Selphie, knows how much this feeling hurts but suddenly it makes _sense_. "Oh Selphie, we need you here. If something happens I need you to be the light that pulls us home, do you understand?"

"No," and Selphie is tearing up again. "But if you say it's important then I trust you. I'll be here, waiting, so hurry back."

"Write to us!" Kairi calls as she backs down the stairs, "just put the letters in a bottle and throw them out to sea and think of us, your words will find us wherever we are."

"I'll miss you!" Selphie doesn't quite sob out.

"I couldn't do this without you!" Kairi shouts and it wakes Selphie's parents who come stumbling out of their room with a muttered _what in the world._ "We'll be home soon!" She doesn't promise because all the promises made since this madness has begun seem destined to be broken but she burns the words into her heart, hopes it reaches her friend at the top of the stairs who has to turn around and get dressed and go to school like nothing has changed in her life when Kairi knows first hand how _different_ everything will be for Selphie now.

Riku is waiting for her at the docks. She smiles at him, all her previous anger burned away and replaced with gentle amusement as he studies her with furrowed brows. "Did you...cut your hair?"

She laughs, loud and clear and free for the first time in months. "No."

"Are you sure? Something seems..." he trails off, cocking his head to the side like a bird. "Different."

Kairi punches him in the shoulder affectionately. "You've just been gone too long, now come on. Master Yen Sid is waiting, right?"

She doesn't fully know what to expect her when she gets to the tower but _Destiny's Embrace_ is thrumming within her heart and Kairi thinks she might finally be done being left behind.


End file.
